Pharnabazus III.

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Pharnabazus III

Pharnabazos ( Greek : Φαρνάβαζος; * between 370 and 365 BC; † after 321 BC) was a high Persian nobleman, naval commander and general of the Achaemenid Empire in the 4th century BC.

Pharnabazos came from the Pharnacids family and was probably the oldest of several sons of Artabazos and a Greek woman from Rhodes . His uncles were the Rhodian generals Mentor and Memnon , with whom he was related by marriage through his sister Barsine and who were able to give him some military experience. Together with his father he spent the years 353–342 BC. At the Macedonian court in exile. When his father met the Persian great king Artaxerxes III. reconciled, Pharnabazos also returned to the Persian court.

When Alexander the Great in 334 BC BC invaded Asia Minor, first tried Memnon in the pay of the Persian great king Dareios III. stop him. After the defeat of the Persians in the Battle of Granicus , Asia Minor had to be given up to Alexander. Memnon then took over command of the Persian fleet with which he operated in the Aegean region. 333 BC Memnon died and Pharnabazos, who may have been in his wake, took command together with Autophradates . While there was little to oppose Alexander's advance on land, Pharnabazos acted somewhat more successfully with the fleet in the Aegean region. The islands of Lesbos , Tenedos and Chios could initially be held, and he also sent some ships to Kos and Halicarnassus , while 100 of the fastest ships called at the Cycladic island of Sifnos . There he met the Spartan King Agis III. who asked for financial support to initiate a revolt against Macedonian rule in Greece. In this situation the message of the Persian defeat arrived at Issus . Since a rebellion on Chios against the Persian rule was to be expected, Pharnabazos hurried there with 12 ships and 1,500 mercenaries. There he could no longer prevent the uprising, which was also supported by the Macedonian fleet under Hegelochus . In the battle for Chios, Pharnabazos himself was captured and was supposed to be sent to Alexander in Phenicia, but a little later he managed to escape to Kos.

Pharnabazos disappears from the traditions for the time being. However, it is likely that he - following his father - after the death of Darius III. 330 BC BC Alexander subdued and joined the high Persian retinue of the conqueror. Due to the mass wedding of Susa in 324 BC He became a brother-in-law of the Macedonian officers Ptolemaios and Eumenes . The latter became after the death of Alexander in 323 BC. One of the leading diadochi in the struggle for power in the Alexander empire .

In 321 BC Eumenes faced the general Krateros in the battle of the Hellespont . In the left wing of Eumenes' army were several detachments of Asiatic cavalry, led by Pharnabazos. After that, its trace is lost in the sources.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Arrian , Anabasis 2, 1, 3.
  2. ↑ Arrian, Anabasis 2, 13, 5.
  3. ↑ Arrian, Anabasis 3, 2, 7.
  4. ↑ Plutarch , Eumenes 7; Diodor 18, 30-32.
personal data
SURNAME Pharnabazus III.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Φαρνάβαζος (Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Persian fleet commander and general
DATE OF BIRTH between 370 BC BC and 365 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH after 321 BC Chr.